The route through Bulgaria and Romania is the most predictable today, because it runs entirely in the Schengen area. A ferry to Italy pays off when loading on the west coast of Greece. You choose the body for the most demanding goods, you book peak seasons in advance, and you insure expensive cargo over the limit with CMR.
Importing food from Greece
Transport from Greece to Polish is gaining in importance every year. In 2025, Greece sold food abroad for over 9 billion euros, more than 9% more than a year earlier, and a significant part of this goods goes to other EU countries, including Polish. However, oil, cheese, olives, fish, fruit and vegetables are loads that do not forgive planning mistakes. From the ramp in Greece to the ramp in Poland it is from about 1700 to over 2200 km. On the way, there are borders or crossing the Adriatic, and it depends on the choice of route, body and transport model whether the delivery will arrive on time, in good condition and at a cost that can be predicted. This guide shows you how to make these decisions so that your company doesn't pay for them with complaints, downtime, or empty spaces in the trailer.Importing food from Greece
Greece mainly exports food: olive oil, cheeses with feta at the forefront, olives, yoghurts, fish, fruit and vegetables, as well as medicines and aluminium products. Each of these groups requires different conditions of transport. Cheese, fish, fresh produce and medicines go refrigerated, while oil, preserves and aluminium usually go by tarpaulin or isotherm. The scale is large. Olive oil alone gave Greece €1.31 billion in exports in 2025, and together with feta over €2.1 billion. However, for logistics, each group of goods is a separate order, even if it leaves from the same supplier. Bottled oil and fresh feta can come from the same warehouse, but they should not be driven in the same conditions. Most of the pitfalls are hidden in goods that, at first glance, do not require special care. Premium oil loses quality in the summer heat and becomes cloudy in winter at low temperatures, so for a longer route, it is worth considering an isotherm instead of a regular tarpaulin. Olives and preserves in glass require careful fastening, because the bump of one jar can stain the entire pallet. Aluminum sheets are sensitive to moisture and condensation, which leave corrosive stains on the surface. This results in a simple rule: the body and transport conditions are selected for the most demanding goods in the car, not for the price of freight. Your company benefits twice from this. It avoids complaints about sensitive goods, and at the same time does not overpay for refrigeration where a tarpaulin is enough.
Which way does the transport from Greece to Polish go?
Transport from Greece to Polish usually takes one of three routes: by land through Bulgaria and Romania, by land through North Macedonia and Serbia, or by ferry from Igoumenitsa or Patras to Italy and further by road. The first variant runs entirely through the EU, the second leads through countries outside the EU, and the third bypasses the Balkans. None is always the best.Through Bulgaria and Romania
Since January 1, 2025, Bulgaria and Romania have been fully in the Schengen area, and controls at the Greek-Bulgarian border have disappeared. The entire route to Polish therefore runs through the European Union, without transit procedures and without check-in queues. The toll bridges on the Danube, where truck traffic is concentrated, remain a bottleneck. For most deliveries to Polish, this is the most predictable option, and predictability means more reliable unloading dates and less warehouse downtime for your company.Through North Macedonia and Serbia
From northern Greece, for example from the vicinity of Thessaloniki, this route is sometimes shorter. However, it leads through two external borders of the EU, and EU goods in transit through countries outside the Union require a transit declaration. In addition, there are queues at crossings, the length of which cannot be planned. Therefore, a shorter distance does not always mean faster delivery, and with goods in cold storage, every hour at the border is an additional risk.Ferry to Italy
From Igumenitsa and Patras, freight ferries go to Ancona, Bari, Brindisi and Venice. The Igumenitsa-Ancona crossing takes about 16-18 hours and is operated daily. The driver takes a rest during this time, and the car avoids the Balkans entirely. This variant makes the most sense when the goods go to Italy, Germany or further west, or when loading takes place on the west coast of Greece. When it comes to ferry, you need to remember about two less obvious things. Shipowners add surcharges resulting from the EU ETS system and the FuelEU Maritime regulation to the tickets, so comparing the cost of the kilometers alone gives an incomplete picture. Some Italian-Greek airlines also do not accept dangerous goods, so for ADR cargo, you need to check this before booking. [GRAPHIC: three routes from Greece to Polish – two land and one ferry, with countries along the way (marked non-EU countries and crossing), and for each formality, the main risk and when the variant works]FTL or LTL – which model to choose when importing from Greece?
FTL (Full Truck Load) is the transport of the entire semi-trailer for one customer, without reloading on the way. LTL (Less Than Truck Load) is groupage transport, in which the customer pays only for the occupied space, and the rest of the semi-trailer is filled with other loads. FTL pays off for large volumes from one supplier, LTL for smaller batches from several. A full car is the simplest scenario. A standard semi-trailer holds 33 Euro pallets, the goods go from ramp to ramp without reloading, the delivery time is the shortest, and the risk of damage is the lowest. If your company regularly orders several dozen pallets from one manufacturer, this is usually the best choice, even if the rate for the car seems high. In food imports, however, rarely everything comes from one supplier. Oil comes from the Peloponnese, cheeses from Thessaly, olives from yet another producer. This is when consolidation works, i.e. combining loads from several senders into one delivery. Instead of paying for three partial cars, your company pays for the space that the goods actually occupy. The price is time, because picking up from several places extends the route. With goods at different temperatures, a multi-compartment semi-trailer helps, in which each chamber has its own settings. Cheese and fish can then go next to the oil without compromising on the conditions of transport. However, the biggest savings do not result from the choice of FTL or LTL itself, but from regularity. A fixed collection schedule, for example once a week from the same points, allows you to plan cars in advance and combine orders into full loads.How to maintain the temperature in refrigerated transport from Greece?
The temperature in the refrigerated truck on the route from Greece is maintained by four things: cooling the semi-trailer before loading, checking the temperature of the goods themselves, clearly recording the value in the order and securing the unit at stops and ferries. To do this, you need monitoring with someone who responds to the alarm at any time. On a long route, the temperature rarely escapes at one time. Problems usually come from minor negligence at the beginning. The semi-trailer should have a set temperature before the first pallet enters it, which is especially important in Greece in summer. The goods themselves must be cooled at the supplier, because the unit maintains the temperature, but does not cool the cargo. If the cargo leaves the warehouse in the heat, no generator will fix it on the way, so it is worth measuring the temperature of the goods and recording it when loading. Another trap is documents. The temperature must be clearly entered in the order and transport documents, because the very notation "cold storage" without value is an open door to dispute when making a complaint. On the road, the most difficult stops are the most difficult times: heat, a queue at the border or night on the ferry are the moments when the generator works the hardest. On the ferry, you need to be provided with power supply to the generator or fuel for the entire crossing. However, the most important thing is to react in real time. Temperature monitoring only makes sense if someone sees the alarm and reacts to it also at night and at the weekend. The record from the recorder from loading to unloading, in turn, protects your company in the event of a complaint, because it shows where and when something went wrong.When to book transport from Greece in advance?
It is worth planning in advance, especially autumn and the beginning of winter, when the harvest and pressing of oil are underway, the season for Greek kiwi starts and the demand before Christmas in Poland increases. The second difficult period is summer, when the heat increases the requirements for refrigerated facilities, and ferries to Italy are heavily loaded with tourist traffic. The Greek destination has several predictable peaks and it is worth having them in your shopping calendar. Fresh oil from the new harvest is quickly exported, and in the fourth quarter, cheese, olives and olive oil sell best in Poland. Orders from Greek suppliers then overlap with the general pre-Christmas peak in transport, so it is more difficult to find a free car and rates are rising. In summer, on the other hand, the problem is not so much the availability of cars, but the places on the ferries and the load on the generators at high temperatures. In practice, a simple mechanism works best: a forecast of volumes for the quarter provided to the operator in advance. The operator can then book cars and places on the ferries before the competition does. Your company gains stable dates and rates during the period when both of these parameters are the least predictable on the spot market.What to ask the operator before the first transport from Greece?
Before the first order, it is worth getting specific answers from the operator to seven questions: about the route, real delivery time, reaction to temperature alarms, consolidation, communication with the supplier, insurance and restrictions on the route. Generalities in the answers are a warning signal, and specifics save your company nerves during the first delivery. 1. Which route will the goods take and why this one? 2. What is the real delivery time and who, when, will inform about the delay? 3. Who responds to the temperature alarm at night and at the weekend? 4. Is it possible to consolidate from several suppliers and how long does it take to collect the cargo? 5. Who communicates with the supplier in Greece, including notifications and loading windows? 6. What is the scope of insurance above the carrier's liability limit? 7. Is the cargo within the route restrictions, especially for ADR goods on the ferry? The question about insurance requires special attention. The carrier's liability according to the CMR convention is limited to 8.33 SDR per kilogram of gross weight. In the case of medicines, premium oil or cheese in small packages, it is often a fraction of the value of the goods, so without additional cargo insurance, your company can recover only part of the losses in the event of damage.